Meerkat and Periscope: The rise of a new era of journalism or merely a passing fad?

Watching a livestream of Chicago on Meerkat

Technology has long been a driving force for change in journalism. Long before “digital disruption” was coined as a term, new inventions and technologies have influenced and changed the media landscape and how we’ve received our news. Back in the 15th century, the Gutenberg Press kicked off the Printing Revolution with the improved ability to mass print books. In WW2, radio reporting enabled audiences away from the frontlines of the war to keep up with the latest updates and stay informed. With its rise in popularity from the late 1940s through the 1960s, television played a key role in shifting public opinion in the Vietnam War, with negative portrayals of the war causing a decline in public support. More recently, from the changes in the way we receive and follow news to the influence its had on major events such as the Arab Spring uprisings, the Internet and social media have cause dramatic changes in the journalism industry. As social media becomes increasingly mainstream, what’s next? What’s the next innovation to disrupt journalism?

Opinion: Frightening Business Models of New Media Organizations

GigaOm announces it’s closure after running out of funding.

Free. Everyone loves it when something is free. Free email. Free cloud storage. Free social networks. Free apps. Free services. Free newsletters. Free content. But how sustainable is “free”? Throughout this semester, we have discussed in detail various new media organizations, such as Buzzfeed and the Skimm, who have seen consistent growth over the last few years and often, solid revenue gains. What we haven’t discussed as much, however, is the sustainability of the business models of these new media organizations. A trend I have noticed in media is a general lack of understanding over the degree of profitability of profitability of each organization, something admittedly influenced by their private ownership. As successful as these organizations are, they are only influential if can continue to operate. This, of course, leads to the inevitable question: How profitable are these organizations? 

The thin line between ambitious and offensive: the story of Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber

Image credit: TechCrunch

In the past few years, Uber has risen from a little-known private-car service in San Francisco to a globally recognized car service operating in 53 countries around the world. Many recognize Uber as the poster child of a recent boom of “sharing economy”-like startups. These startups, such as Airbnb, Lyft, and TaskRabbit, all depend on independent contractors to provide their services and are disrupting everything from the hotel industry to the taxi industry. At the center and forefront of it all is Travis Kalanick, the co-founder and current CEO of Uber.

Digitally Connected Life on Campus

In the past few years, technology has become increasingly prevalent in the daily lives of students. With laptops and smartphones, students are both more productive and more easily distracted than ever. From texting in class to paying friends with Venmo, this photo story explores the positive and negative ways technology and innovation have influenced the daily grind of students on campus.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Global Internet Access with Project Loon

Source: Project Loon/Google+

Internet access is something many of us take for granted. From social media to Netflix, a large portion of our daily lives depend on Internet access to work. Everywhere we go, we often have access to Internet, whether it’s from campus WiFi, our smartphones or another means of access. According to Internet Live Stats, 86.75% of Americans have access to the Internet. Yet, only 40% of the global population has Internet access. How come?

The Entertaining But Informative Side of News

The title sequence of The Daily Show

As a popular news show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart uses satire to convey news with a entertaining delivery method. Though I do not regularly watch The Daily Show, I know many friends who watch the show religiously. After all, Pew Research Center says 12% of American adults get news from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. After watching the episode of The Daily Show from Monday, February 23rd, I am starting to see and understand the popularity of the show.

Surprisingly Enjoyable, But Difficult to Watch Regularly: The Issue with Televised News for College Students

Source: Facebook/CBS Evening News

Though I would have hoped that my first reaction to watching the CBS Evening News on Monday February 23^{rd ­}would be something intellectual, my first reaction was to try and figure out when I last sat down to watch news on TV. And, being honest, it’s been at least a year, if not longer. My parents, of course, occasionally watch news programs on TV, but I have never taken much interest in joining in.

Data Visualization in Technology Journalism: Visually Attractive But Without Enough Context

Source: Forbes

Last month, Forbes published “Connected Cars By The Numbers [Infographic]“, a report on the trend of “connected” cars – cars equipped Internet connectivity and related features. Though visually attractive, the data visualization in this article illustrates the oversimplification data visualization often does to an article.

With data visualizations such as the infographic from this article, the reader can view the data in a visually pleasing manner and easily put statistics and numbers in perspective. The Forbes article uses bright colors in its infographic to draw in the reader and allow the reader to interpret the data visually. Compared to the alternative of presenting text and long paragraphs summarizing the findings of research, images are effective in drawing in the reader who otherwise may not spend as much time reading the article. Another advantage of data visualization is the ease of sharing the results – sharing an infographic on social media can be done more easily than sharing a long article.

In this article, Forbes uses bright colors and shapes to present the data and findings of the research. In the image, the colors represent different data points and the shapes represent the magnitude of the data point relative to other data points. With this infographic, for example, we can quickly identify that connected cars are becoming increasingly popular, as shown by the relative size of the two cubes representing the number of connected cars in 2013 (in yellow – 23 million) and 2020 (in red – 152 million).

Unlike traditional journalism, data visualization often portrays data and statistics in an aesthetically attractive way, and leaves the viewer to interpret the graphs and draw their own conclusions. With the focus on conveying the data and results with beautiful aesthetics, however, data visualization takes away much of the context, explanations, and other bits of information, making it less useful and informative than a traditional article.

Comparing this Forbes article to other examples, such as a Forbes article on Apple’s Q1 2015 earnings, a Forbes article on the top 10 Venture Capital deals in 2014, we can see how Forbes tends to combine shorter articles with data visualizations. Not everyone, however, follows this trend. Pew Research Center uses graphs of its findings to supplement its long research reports, as shown in its Social Media Update 2014 report from last month. Better yet, adding an interactive element or another layer of information (such as pop-up information when hovering over a data point) would also improve the usefulness of data visualization in an article.

In the world of technology journalism, there remains room for improvement for better integration of data visualization into articles. Instead of viewing data visualization as a replacement for text, publications should follow the example of Pew Research Center of using data visualization instead as a supplement or add interactivity to their data visualization projects.

Technology Weekly: The Latest Updates on Online Video Streaming and Content

In recent years, competition has increased dramatically in online video offerings with competition heating up between established players, including movie studios, television channels, and brick-and-mortar stores, and disrupters, including Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more. In this week’s Technology Weekly radio show, I talk about the latest updates, including Target’s Tuesday announcement regarding their Target Ticket service (spoiler alert: they are shutting it down) and the shift towards more original content from Netflix and BitTorrent. Target’s attempt at competing against Netflix, iTunes and others with an online video offering illustrates digital disruption at its best, forcing established companies to experiment with products.

NPR One Review: Public radio made mobile, not personal

Screenshots from NPR One app

“Public radio made personal” – that’s the slogan NPR uses to describe NPR One, a smartphone app launched in July 2014 for listening to NPR on the go. NPR, established in 1970, is one of the most recognizable organizations in the public radio industry. More than ever, however, radio is being threatened by a breadth of alternatives, such as satellite radio, internet radio, television, online news, and more. With the NPR One app, NPR makes a major step towards transforming their core service, public radio, into the modern era of smartphones and internet.